Statement by Richard H. McLaren, Independent Person

Preamble: In order to clarify matters for International Federations and others, Professor Richard H. McLaren asked WADA to post the following statement to our website on his behalf.

——

London, Ontario, July 29, 2016 – Richard H. McLaren presented the results of his investigation with respect to the allegations of manipulation of doping samples to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on July 18, 2016. Today, he issued the following statement to clarify the mandate of the Independent Person investigation and detail the next steps of the McLaren Investigation:

“As WADA announced, on July 24, my mandate as Independent Person (IP) has been extended so that my team and I can fulfill the third element of our mandate, namely ‘to identify any further athletes that might have benefited from such manipulation to conceal positive doping tests’.

Our investigation is ongoing, and over the coming weeks we will be developing our work plan and critical path.

In the interim and in light of the July 24 response of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to my report, my office has been inundated with requests for information on individual athletes. With this in mind, I believe it is important for me to be clear on how information was obtained and how it is being used.

On July 24, the IOC Executive Board published its decision stating that it was “… guided by a fundamental rule of the Olympic Charter to protect clean athletes and the integrity of sport”. In so doing it instructed the “IFs (International Federations) to examine the information contained in the IP Report, and for such purpose seek from WADA the names of athletes and National Federations (NFs) implicated. Nobody implicated, may be accepted for entry or accreditation for the Olympic Games.”

This decision has resulted in a deluge of requests to provide information to the IFs; Russian national federations; the Russian Olympic Committee; the Russian Paralympic Committee and individual Russian athletes.

For the avoidance of any doubt and to be very clear, the focus of my investigation to date has been to review evidence of a State dictated program which used the Moscow and Sochi laboratories to cover up doping. It has not been to establish Anti-Doping Rule Violation cases against individual athletes. I wish to emphasize that the IP is not a Results Management Authority as defined by the World Anti-Doping Code and that I did not attempt to conduct a Results Management investigation with respect to individual Russian athletes.

I have, however, reviewed a considerable amount of reliable evidence, which clearly implicates individual athletes in the State-dictated program described in the IP Report. That evidence includes documents supported by the testimony of confidential witnesses and in some cases additional forensic and analytical evidence from the examination of sample bottles and their contents.

I should also point out that as a result of the mandate extension, my ongoing investigation includes developing additional evidence concerning individual athletes. This evidence may be used in the future when the extended mandate is completed, to support an Anti-Doping Rule Violation case initiated by an IF against a particular athlete in accordance with its Results Management Authority.

At this stage, I will not release any of the specific information I currently have concerning any athletes. To do so would compromise the ongoing investigation. I have, however, provided information to WADA naming athletes whose urine samples were part of the state run cover up using Disappearing Positive Methodology or otherwise. WADA in turn has shared this information with IFs.

I trust that this statement clarifies my position and wish to express my appreciation to WADA and the international community for its confidence and its respect for the integrity of my investigation.”

Professor McLaren was appointed by WADA as the IP to head an investigative team charged with determining the facts with respect to the allegations of manipulation of doping control samples and other allegations made by Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the former Director of the Moscow Laboratory accredited by WADA. The investigation was launched to establish what is in the best interest of clean sport and clean athletes.

• This media release was originally published by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on 29 July 2016. To access the original, please click here.